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Indians prefer smartphones to TVs: survey

India is leading the US, UK and Germany in adpoting smartphones over TV use according to a survey of 40 countries by Google and IPSOS.

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While only 27% of users in mature mobile device markets put their phones before their TVs, 49% of Indian respondents to the survey published this week claimed they would rather give up television than their phone.

"This surprising shift is attributable to the combination of communication and entertainment options that the smartphone brings to users," a statement issued by Google said.

What's more, 56% of Indians find their smartphones more entertaining than the television, compared with 18% of UK, 20% of French, 17% of German and 21% of US respondents. Interestingly, 29% of South Africans, the highest percentage after India and another emerging smartphone market, also said that they found their phones more entertaining than TV.

This rejection of TV is strongest in female smartphone owners, 58% of women prefer their phone to the TV, and, while male users are not far behind, the survey also found that 55% of men regularly use their devices for watching videos.

An earlier Google survey published in February showed that as well as for watching TV, Indian smartphone owners use their devices to go online more often than their US counterparts, with 56% of owners using their devices to access the web multiple times a day, compared with 53% of Americans. Indian users also ranked highly when it came to using social media with 76% of smartphone owners using their devices to access sites such as Facebook, compared with 54% in the US.